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The NBA is one step closer to welcoming Amazon to the party, and NBC back into the fold, while perhaps saying goodbye to Inside the NBA and Charles Barkley.
After an early summer of speculation about NBA media rights that raised questions about incumbent broadcaster Warner Bros. Discovery and its future with the league, The Athletic reported Wednesday that the NBA, Amazon and ESPN have agreed to an 11-year deal worth roughly $76 billion.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav noted recently at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho that his company’s TNT Sports has a “matching right,” which The Athletic posits WBD may use to go after Amazon’s portion of the agreement. TNT has held the rights to NBA broadcasts for 40 years, but longtime Inside the NBA host Charles Barkley isn’t waiting around to see how this plays out, announcing his intention to retire from broadcasting next year despite his appearance at WBD’s upfront event and the doubts of his industry peers.
The media world isn’t waiting to weigh in on the deal’s potential impact, either.
“As we have seen over the past few years, sports league deals are becoming increasingly streaming-centric,” said David Cohen, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). “The center of gravity in this industry has been changing for a while now, and this landmark deal solidifies the shift in television toward a true streaming-first future.”
In early reports from The Wall Street Journal, NBC’s portion of the deal reportedly featured only half its NBA games aired on linear television, with the other half streamed exclusively on Peacock. Amazon’s inclusion could create even greater streaming opportunities for the league and its brand partners.
With 78% of NBA advertisers on linear networks also advertising on the league’s streaming broadcasts, according to SponsorUnited, the other 22% could be coaxed by expanded options on Amazon and Peacock playing a larger role. Bob Lynch, founder and CEO of SponsorUnited, noted that streaming opens up ad and sales opportunities that just don’t exist in linear broadcast.
